LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "giusto" in Italian?
JOO-stoh, stress on the first syllable, the "g" landing as a soft "j" the way it does in "giraffe." In IPA: /ˈdʒus.to/. It comes out in one confident push, not two hesitant pieces.
Two syllables, giu and sto, all the weight on the first. The "gi" here isn't really two sounds: like the "ci" in "ciao," the i is silent and only tells you the g stays soft before the u that follows.
Listen: giusto
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Sound it out
The spelling follows the same logic as "ciao": an i squeezed between g and another vowel doesn't get pronounced on its own, it just signals that the g should stay soft rather than turn hard.
Hear it in a sentence
La risposta è giusta.
The answer is correct.
Listen: La risposta è giusta.
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The example shows "giusto" agreeing with a feminine noun, "la risposta" (the answer), so the ending switches from -o to -a: "giusta." This is the regular four-form adjective pattern (giusto/giusta/giusti/giuste), unlike invariable -e adjectives such as "facile" — the ending has to track the gender and number of whatever it describes.
"Giusto" covers both "correct" (as here, of an answer) and "fair" or "right" in a moral sense, and it's also used on its own as a quick interjection meaning "right!" or "exactly!" when agreeing with what someone just said.
Where English speakers slip
The most common misfire is pronouncing the g as hard, like the g in "go," instead of the soft "j" sound it actually has here — a habit that creeps in because English gi-combinations aren't consistent (compare "give" with a hard g to "giant" with a soft g). Before i, Italian g is always soft, no exceptions, so "giusto" starts exactly like "juice," never like "goose."
The second slip is adding a puff of air to the t in "sto," the way English aspirates t at the start of a stressed syllable. Italian consonants like t, p, and k are unaspirated, produced with a cleaner, sharper release and no following breath of air.